


The Better Timeline

by Calyux



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:47:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27910258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calyux/pseuds/Calyux
Summary: A universe where Luffy gets some warnings that'll change the story. This was partly inspired by Kereea's series, ASL In Red. If some thing seem similar, that's why. If you haven't read it, I highly suggest you do. Its much better than what I could write.
Relationships: Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco/Portgas D. Ace, Koala/Sabo (One Piece), Monkey D. Luffy/Trafalgar D. Water Law, Nami/Nefertari Vivi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 43





	The Better Timeline

On the docks of a village on a certain island in the East Blue, a boy was crying. He watched as his friends loaded their pirate ship. After months of hanging around, Shanks and the Red Hair pirates were leaving. Makino smiled and gave the small rubber boy’s shoulder a squeeze. She was gonna miss them too. Especially their captain. Luffy clutched the precious straw hat to his chest and looked on as their ship receded into the distance. The entire village had shown up to wave the kind pirates off. Makino looked down and saw determination in Luffy’s eyes, and at that moment she knew he’d fulfil the promise he’d made.

“Oh, you’re going to surpass me?” said Shanks with a grin. “Then you’d better hold onto this. This hat is very dear to me. Return it to me once you become a great pirate!” Shank placed his straw hat on Luffy’s head.

Luffy clutched it tightly, and cried. Through his tears, he said “I will.”

Makino smiled again as the ship disappeared, and knelt down. “How would you like some juice, Luffy?”

The tearful boy nodded, and she led him by the hand back to the bar.

It’s been a few months since Shanks left. Garp had been to the village once every few weeks to help Luffy train, but the ungrateful little shit was still yammering on about how he was going to be the ‘King of the Pirates’. It was annoying, especially since Garp knew that Luffy was going to be a great Marine! Ace too, if he had anything to say about it. Despite Garp’s respect for his father, he didn’t want either of them trying to follow in Roger’s footsteps. He’d already failed to get his own idiot kid to be on the side of right, he wasn't gonna mess up with his grandsons.

Garp pondered for a minute outside Makino’s bar, before making a decision. He entered and scanned the patrons for Luffy. Once he found him, he grabbed him by the back of the shirt and walked back out.

“Oi, oi, lemme go! Lemme g- oh, Grandpa. Are you gonna make me fight more monkeys today?”

Garp ignored his question. “Luffy, we’re going up the mountain. There's a friend there who you’re gonna live with. And you can finally meet Ace.” At that, Luffy started to squirm and writhe like a rubber snake having a seizure.

“But I like living with Makino! I don’t wanna go!” Garp rolled his eyes and bokened him with a Fist of Love. “Gah, you’re trying to kill me! I knew it!” screamed Luffy. The exasperated marine sighed and started to ascend the mountain. It was going to be a long walk.

Luffy was angry. Grandpa had just yanked him from the bench! He hadn’t even been able to finish his morning juice! Now he was being carried through the forest, his Grandpa droning on about something that sounded suspiciously like ‘marine training’. How many times would he have to be told? Luffy wasn’t gonna be a marine, he was going to be the King of the Pirates! He’d promised Shanks, after all. Luffy was about to voice this sentiment to his Grandfather when he heard a gruff, “we’re here”. The small rubber child examined the place where he'd apparently be living from now on. It was really nothing more than a simple cabin in the woods.

Garp rapped on the door, and shouted “Dadan!” There were scuffling sounds inside, and suddenly the door was yanked open by a very large, orange-haired woman.

“Who is it? Don’t you know this is the territory of the Dadan family? I should kill- AHHH!” The woman screamed as she seemed to realise who was standing in front of her “G-Garp! What can I do for you today?” she managed to squeak out.

“This is my other Grandson, Luffy.” Luffy was raised in front of the mountain bandit. “Luffy, say hi.”

“Yo!”

“I need you to take care of him from now on”, said the burly man. 

The woman was outraged. “What?! We’re already watching one of your brats! We’re mountain bandits, not a daycare center! We can’t watch two little-”

“What was that?”

Luffy watched as the bandit’s expression changed quickly, from anger to fear, and then quickly a fake plastered on smile. “Oh, nothing at all, Garp. We'll Be happy to take care of your bratty Grandkids.” 

Garp grinned. “That's what I thought”, boomed the huge marine. “Remember, this is your thanks to me for not turning you all in.” Dadan nodded while still wearing her fake smile. Luffy was then dropped on the ground as his Grandpa addressed him. “All right, Luffy, gomeet Ace. He's gonna be your brother.”

The straw hat-clad boy nodded and raced inside. The large room was dim, and he could make out a bunch of bandits conversing among themselves. In the corner, there was a young, angry looking boy with dark hair. He appeared to be a little older than Luffy. Luffy grinned, That must be Ace! The self-proclaimed future Pirate King made his way over and attempted to start a conversation. 

“Are you Ace? Grandpa said I was gonna live with you guys!” 

Ace ignored him. So Luffy tried again.

“Do you like pirates? I’m gonna be the King!” This seemed to strike a nerve with Ace. He promptly spat on Luffy and turned away from him to look at the wall. Luffy almost got angry, but then he remembered what bShanks had said. He began to Laugh hysterically and walked away. “I wonder when dinner is. I want meat!” 

Ace stared after the boy as he walked away. What’s with that kid?

Soon after, the mountain bandits were having dinner. It’d been a pile of meat. Luffy was sulking because he hadn’t gotten any. He approached Dadan. 

“Oi, old hag!” The hag in question was currently ripping into some meat herself and growed at Luffy.

“Whaddaya want, runt?”

“Give me some meat.” 

“Do you even know where you've been left?” growled the bandit again. “This is the hideout of the mountain bandits who rule Mt. Corvo, the Dadan Family!”

Luffy was unimpressed. “Mountain bandits? I hate those guys,” said the rubber boy, remembering the ones who kidnapped him. 

Dadan started to yell. “Shut up, brat! We don’t want to raise you anyways! You don't want to be here? Fine by me, go die in the forest!” She stopped when she realised Luffy wasn’t paying attention. She waved some meat in front of the kid’s face, only to snatch it away when he went for it. “The life of a mountain bandit is hard,”, said the woman. “In fact, starting tomorrow, we're gonna work you half to death. Cleaning, Laundry, Shoe Polishing and Weapons Polishing, Theft, Looting, Swindling, and Murder. And listen, you can’t let Garp know about anything we make you do. If you want anything to eat besides rice, you'll have to find it yourself.” The bandit thought happily to herself, This’ll get that brat to shut up! 

Luffy stuck a finger in his nose and said, “Ok.” Dadan fell to the fore in shock, and as the other bandits tried to get her head out from inside the floorboards, Ace waked out of the cabin. Luffy noticed and ran after him with a smile. “Ace! Wait for-” Luffy exited the cabin to find that Ace had already disappeared. Huh. Guess I’ll have to move faster tomorrow. Luffy reentered the cabin and promptly went to sleep.

Ace watched the weird kid with the straw hat from just outside the clearing. What was wrong with him? He tried to be Ace’s friend. Well, Ace already had a friend, and one was enough. He didn’t really want to deal with the smiley bastard who was now living with him.. So Ace made the decision to kill him if he got the chance. Simplest solution. The son of Roger smiled to himself, before heading back to the cabin to go to sleep.

The next morning, Ace walked out of the cabin to go to the Gray Terminal and meet up with Sabo. Luffy grinned and followed him into the forest, which irked Ace. So, the angry boy tried to lose him in the trees. He got up a sheer rock face when Luffy appeared at the bottom. 

“Ace! Let’s be friends! I’m not mad that you spit on me!” Luffy grinned and looked at the older boy expectantly. Ace kicked a tree, and sent the massive log after the annoying kid. Ace smirked as Luffy screamed and continued walking.

Ace got to a rope bridge across a deep chasm before Luffy caught up again, panting yet still jovial. Ace tightened his grip on the metal pipe he was holding, approached the smiling boy, and knocked him off the bridge. Ace smiled coldly and went hunting.

When Ace returned with food that night, Dadan’s two helpers, Magra and Dogra, questioned him on the whereabouts of Luffy. Ace blew them off, and Luffy did not return that night. In fact, Ace had a full week of peace, where every day he’d head to Gray Terminal and cause trouble with Sabo, and then on his way home he’d kill something for dinner. 

He’d almost forgotten about the little pest, until he turned up back in front of the cabin on the seventh day. He was beaten up, dirty, and out of breath. Ace frowned. He was sure he’d managed to kill him! How disappointing.

The next day, Ace set out just like any other day, and Luffy followed him just like last time. Ace managed to try to kill him, but Luffy had gotten farther than the first time. And so it went, with every morning Ace walking into the forest, and Luffy following him, each day making it farther than the last before Ace managed to lose him. 

Finally, the day came where Luffy made it all the way to the Gray Terminal. He was surprised to see the massive expanse of trash and the criminal who lived there. So this is where Ace sneaks off to every day. Speaking of Ace, Luffy spotted his dark hair along with another kid just as they disappeared into another area of the forest, and he broke into a bright smile. Finally, he’d made it to where he could talk to him! Now they can be friends! Luffy ran after the two.

“Wow, Ace, this is so much money! Where’d you even get this much?” asked the blond in the top hat.

Ace grinned. “Stole It from some pirates near the entrance.” Ace couldn't lie, he was pretty proud of this haul. 

“Wow, Ace! You guys have so much money! Who’s your friend?” Ace and Sabo looked at each other first with confusion, then horror, as they realised- “Hi! I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm gonna be the king of the Pirates! What’s your name?”

The shocked blond said “Sabo” before he could stop himself. The two seemed to realise simultaneously what had happened and as they rushed to hide their treasure, Sabo questioned his friend. “Isn’t this the one you were talking about?” Sabo hissed. “How’d he get here?”

“I don’t know”, Ace bit back. “He’s never made it this far before.” After the two had hidden the treasure, they tied up the rubber boy, who was still grinning like a mad man. “You know what we have to do right?”

“Yeah.”

“We've gotta kill him”, they said simultaneously. Luffy finally stopped smiling and started yelling about how he didn’t want to die and please don't kill him. He promised he wouldn’t tell anyone, as the two older boys argued about who had to do it. 

Suddenly they heard someone coming, and Ace and Sabo shared a terrified look and bolted into the foliage, leaving the younger boy tied up. When the violent looking adults took Luffy, Sabo asked with wide eyes, “Were those people you stole from?” Ace nodded, and Sabo smacked him upside the head. “Ace you idiot those are Bluejam’s men! We’re so dead.”

“Whatever, we can worry about that later. We need to move the treasure before Luffy cracks and rats us out.” Sabo decided he was right and they got to work moving their ‘Pirate Fund’ to a new place.

A couple hours later, they had finished relocating their treasure. 

“All right now we gotta go. Luffy could break at any time”, said Ace.

Sabo suddenly realized something. “Say, Ace, it's been over four hours now and no one’s come.”

“And? What’s your point?” asked the violent child.

“It’s just, I’m starting to think that no one’s going to come.”

“Wait but that would mean…”

“Yeah.”

“Shit! They’re gonna kill him! We’ve gotta save the idiot. Why didn’t he just tell them? Dammit!” Sabo shrugged, and they both raced off towards where they knew Bluejam’s hideout was in the Terminal.

Luffy wasn’t having the best day. After succeeding in following Ace for the first time and meeting Sabo, he was almost immediately kidnapped by some asshole pirates who were currently beating the everloving shit out of him in the hopes that he’d give up the location to Ace and Sabo’s treasure. Well sucks for them! Luffy wasn’t gonna tell anything! The spiked knuckles the big guy was using really hurt though… 

“I’ll ask you one more time”, said the large pirate. “Where are those brats hiding our money?” 

Luffy gathered up his strength, prepared to speak, and proceeded to spit in his eye. That earned him a bunch more body shots. Ouch. Pain, so much pain. Luffy had stood creamng hours ago, he didn’t have the strength.

“Jesus Christ, I had no idea kids were this stupid nowadays,” growled the man. “Just tell us what we need to know, and we’ll let you go.” Luffy said nothing, he was so tired. The pirate was still talking, but Luffy didn‘t hear him. He felt something outside of the shack, and alf a second later, Ace and Sabo burst in, both armed with pipes.

“Hands off shitbird!” yelled Ace.

“Luffy, why didn’t you just tell them? They would’ve killed you!” 

The younger boy smiled at Sabos’s question, tried to tell them it was because it's their treasure, but ended up coughing roughly instead. Nailed it.

The two ten year olds beat the hell out of the three pirates in the room and untied Luffy. The three of them fled through the night air into the forest, when Luffy suddenly burst out laughing.

The older boys stared at him confused. “What's so funny, Luffy?” asked the blond.

“This morning, you two tried to kill me”, said Lufy through his laughter. “And now, you both risked your lives to save mine!” Sabo and Ace stared at each other, it certainly wasn’t as funny as Luffy thought it was, but his laughter was infectious. Soon all three boys were giggling at the absurdity of it. 

Once they had calmed down, Sabo got much more serious and spoke to Ace. “Since we pissed off Bluejam, I don't think it’s safe for me to live in the Gray Terminal anymore. Can you think of any other places where I could sleep?”

Ace got a mischievous grin. “Oh, I bet I could think of one.”

Dadan had had a tough day of robbery, murder, and laundry, so when she got h me, she was glad to see Luffy and Ace had already gone to sleep. “Thank god, I really didn’t have the energy to deal with the brats tonight.” Dadan chuckled to herself, when they were sleeping they almost looked like normal kids. Her eyes scanned the two, Luffy, Ace… wait a minute. The large bandit had never been great at math, but she knew there were only two kids this morning. One, two… huh? One, two… One, two… three? Did they multiply? “Who's this new child in my house?” 

As if on cue, the blue clad boy stood and bowed, which caught Dadan extremely off guard. “I’m Sabo, pleased to meet you Dadan. I’ve heard a lot about you, thank you for feeding me and allowing me to live here.”

Dadan was a bit rattled. “I’ve heard about you too. Wait what’d you say?”

The blond bowed again. “Goodnight.” He promptly conked out right next to the other two mongrels.

“Wait, you’re not living here. Sabo. Sabo!” Dadan sighed in defeat. So much or being a fearsome mountain bandit. Dogra and Magra quietly snickered behind her.

As the boys grew closer, the days seemed to go by faster and faster, every morning the three would go running out of the cabin into the woods, as Dadan yelled at them to do some chores. They spent their days sparing, exploring and hunting. Some days they’d head to the Gray Terminal to rob people or to listen to stories from the people who lived there. Occasionally they’d sneak into the town by the Terminal.

On one such occasion, they stacked one on top of the other and hid in a trench coat, before heading to the restaurant that Sabo said had the best ramen, whatever that meant. The three stuffed their faces, each of them having an enormous appetite, until they were found out. With their cover blown, the three jumped out of the second story window and bolted down the street. Sabo stopped them for a second, and the small thieves turned and bowed.

“Thank you for the food!” they shouted before sprinting away again. As they were running, luffy grabbed a cart full of apples, and pulled it behind them. Later they gorged themselves on them, and one of the ones that Sabo bit into tasted horrible.

Garp would show up randomly and without warning, forcing all three to endure his grueling marine training, and hitting them with his Fists of Love whenever they talked about being pirates. He didn’t even question Sabo being there, in Garp’s eyes he was another marine recruit. Once when Garp hit him with his Fist of Love, the large man was seemingly rozen for about five seconds. The boys had used that time to flee into the forest.

Once a month, Makino would come and visit them, sometimes with the mayor of Windmill Village. She always brought delicious snacks and new clothes. The boys always loved her visits the most. 

Each evening, they return to the cabin in time for dinner, which they eat a lot of. The other bandits were lucky if they got a third of what one of the kids ate. After dinner, they‘d bathe and then go to their room, usually deciding to get one more training match in before bed. This almost always resulted in wrecking the tiny cabin, which exasperated poor Dadan to no end. 

One day, the three boys were sitting on a bluff looking out at the sea, and they promised each other that they'd set sail someday.

One night, after a particularly destructive sparring match, they came to the conclusion that they needed their own hideout. The next morning, they selected a large tree in the forest, and got to work. They gathered materials from the Gray Terminal, and brought them to the tree. During the days, they worked on constructing it, and at night they camped out under the stars. Once their hideout was finally finished, They observed their work. A ladder led up to a large room, where there was an open wall and a steering wheel that resembled the kind on a pirate ship. A second ladder led up to a crows’ nest area on the treetop. It was perfect.

It’d been a week since the bos had been back to the cabin, and Dadan was starting to get worried. She sent out Magra and Dogra to search for them. Not that she cared or anything. She just… didn't want Garp to arrest her! Yeah that's it! Or at least, that’s what she told herself. 

Meanwhile, obvious to the internal turmoil of their guardian, Ace, Sabo and Luffy were sitting around a stump. Ace pulled out three cups and a bottle of booze. “Did you know,” he said as he poured the liquid, ”that if we exchange these cups of sake, we’ll be brothers?” Sabo and Luffy grinned, and the three boys each grabbed a cup. They clinked them together, and downed the alcohol. They finished, and they were all smiling wildly. The new brothers then went looking for something for dinner.

The next day, Sabo created a flag with the three letters of their first names. They raised the flag in the lookout tower, and there it flew over them.

To nighs later, Magra and Dogra finally located he boys, after hearing their snoring in the distance. They reported back to Dadan, who checked in on them the following night. She was relieved to see that they were all okay.

One night, Luffy had a strange dream. There were thousands of people standing around him, and they all looked weirdly familiar. He couldn’t put a name to any of their faces, but he felt like he knew them. He also felt immense sadness and loss wen he saw them. There was a large blue person with tusks. A long nosed man with a large slingshot and an afro. A green-haired man with sharp looking teeth next to a very effeminate man with a rose in his mouth. The list went on and on. But the weirdest group by far were the three that looked like him and his brothers, except much older. His older self talked.

“Brook, you were right! It worked!” A skeleton who was apparently Brook smiled, somehow.

“Luffy, hurry up. We’re on a time crunch, remember?”said an orange haired woman holding a staff.  
“You’re right, sorry Nami.” He turned to the younger him. “Hey buddy. It’s been a while.” The ones who looked like Ace and Sabo stepped forward as well, and each leaned on a shoulder. “Listen, all of us, everyone you’re seeing here, we’re here because of a series of preventable mistakes. We failed the first time. We’re here to make sure you don’t. You can save them all. Do what I failed to. And that starts with reporting Bluejam to Grandpa the next time he shows up. It’s very important, alright? If everything goes as planned, you won’t see us again for many more years. You can do it, Luffy. We all believe in you.”

The younger Luffy couldn't find the words to form a proper sentence, so instead he just nodded. He saw a man with a goatee and a large sword on his shoulder mutter something about “Cora-san”, before waking up with tears dripping from his eyes and sweat drenching his sleeping bag. 

The next day, strangely enough, Garp showed up for training. Luffy asked him to arrest Bluejam, and Garp said he’d look into it.

The brothers trained with a former pirate captain who fought Ace’s father. Sab was helping him nail boards to his ship when he fell in the water. Ace and Luffy waited for him to come up, and started panicking when he didn’t. Ace dove and saved his brother, who’d somehow lost the ability to swim. When they further explored this, the trio realised that, at some point, Sabo had eaten a devil fruit without knowing. They tested out his new powers, and found that he could now manipulate the speed of objects or organisms as they moved through time. Ace was upset that he was now the only brother without powers, but he hid it by boasting about how he was the only one who could swim.

The three of them worked together, using their pipes and powers, to defeat an enormous tiger.

They watched in horror from the cabin as the Gray Terminal burned. 

Luffy started to develop his special Gum-Gum attacks, and Sabo found ways to manipulate his speed so he could run extremely fast, or slow down his opponents to the point where they couldn’t defend or fight back.

The brothers decided they’d set sail once they were 17. 

As the years ticked by, they trained together, ran from Garp whenever he showed up to knock them around a bit, and Ace and Luffy learned manners from Makino, at the behest of Sabo. 

When the time finally came for Ace and Sabo to leave, Dadan didn’t come to see them off. She didn’t want to cry, not that she’d ever admit that she cared about them. Luffy, Dogra, Magra, Makino, the Mayor from Windmill village and the other bandits waved goodbye as they bickered about what to call their crew.

“Ace, we should be the A S pirates, it'll be great!”

Ace sighed. “No, Sabo, we’re not going to be the Ass Pirates.”

“That’s not… I don’t-”

“Alright just shut up. We’ll figure it out later.” The two boys turned and waved until they disappeared. 

They had left a message for Dadan; Thank you for taking care of us all these years. Dadan broke down sobbing when she heard it. 

During the next three years, as Luffy trained and prepared to set sail, his brothers were busy making names for themselves. Soon after setting off, they'd visited Shanks to thank him for saving Luffy when he was a kid. They had a party with the Red Hair Pirates, and set to work gathering a crew. When they were shipwrecked on an island, Ace accidentally ate a devil fruit, a powerful fire logia. They had decided on the Spade Pirates as a name. At Water 7, Ace was able to commision and obtain his Striker. They sailed toward the New World. On a supply run, Ace found a cool fedora with a smiling face and a sa face, and took it. At the Fishman island, Ace had got in a fight with a warlord of the sea, Jinbe, and earned his friendship. Eventually, they had gotten into a conflict with Whitebeard, who easily beat both of them. After Ace tried unsuccessfully to assassinate the old man many times, They finally officially joined his crew. Ace eventually rose to the spot of second division commander, and pursued Marshall D. Teach alone after he’d murdered fourth division commander Thatch.

Luffy avidly stayed up-to-date on his brothers’ exploits, right up to the day where he set sail. The night before, he'd had another dream of all the people that he felt like he should know. They wished him luck.

The morning before Luffy set off on his legendary journey, he visited the home of the Dadan family one last time. All of the bandits gave him a wave and a kind smile except for Dadan herself, who was facing the opposite wall. 

“Are you guys gonna come down to the port to see me off?”

“No,” said Dadan. “Makino and the mayor wouldn’t mind, but we’d freak out the normal citizens.”

“Ok. Well thanks for taking care of me all these years. I don’t really like mountain bandits, but you guys are alright.” At this, Dadan broke down sobbing again, just as she had three years ago. The other bandits tried to comfort her as Luffy smiled and started to descend the mountain.

Luffy was in a small dinghy, with a barrel of provisions. He waved goodbye to the village he was born in. He didn’t notice that Dadan, Magra, and Dogra had snuck into the village, and were watching from an ally as he set off. 

Luffy got ready to start his new life, as the Lord of the Coast rose out of the water. Luffy smirked. It’d been 11 years since they last fought, and now Luffy was much stronger. He wound up his arm, and with a shout of “Gum Gum Pistol!” knocked out the sea monster in one hit. Luffy saied on as the residents of the village cheered. 

A couple hours later, Luffy was hit with a storm and whirlpool which would capsize his small boat, so he climbed into the already-empty barrel and fell asleep.


End file.
